Mark Trakh

Mark Ozeir Trakh (born May 31, 1955) is a Jordanian college basketball coach who had been the women's basketball head coach at the University of Southern California (USC) from 2004 to 2009 and 2017 to 2021. Before his first stint at USC, he was head coach at Pepperdine University, and was head coach at New Mexico State University before returning to USC.

Early life and education Trakh was born in Amman, Jordan and moved to the United States with his family at age 4. Trakh's grandparents are from the Caucasus Mountains and moved to Amman in 1918 to escape Communist rule in Russia. Trakh can speak Circassian and Arabic in addition to English. After high school, Trakh attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, before joining his family in Southern California and transferring to Fullerton College in 1977. A journalism major, Trakh was sports editor at the Fullerton College student newspaper and freelancer for the Fullerton News-Tribune.

Coaching career While in high school, Trakh coached junior high and youth basketball. Trakh had a 354–45 overall record with four state titles (1989, 1991–93).

On April 8, 2011, New Mexico State hired Trakh as head coach. Trakh's time at New Mexico State began with three consecutive losing seasons before the first of three consecutive first-place finishes in the Western Athletic Conference in 2015.

Personal life Mark Trakh's younger brother Maz is also a basketball coach; at the time of Mark's return to USC, Maz was an assistant with the NBA's Washington Wizards.